Thursday, March 03, 2005

Refugee Rights

that the government was obliged to take in refugees facing persecution in their homeland.

This is after Australia refused to accept persecuted Russian Jews, and advised them instead to go to Israel.

Justice Michael Kirby rejected the practice of "shuffling" refugees from one country to another.

"It would be an absurd result if the generosity of other states' refugee laws meant that Australia was thereby relieved of international obligations that it voluntarily accepted with other nations," he said.

There is also pressure on the Government's Immigration Detention laws, which allow for unlimited detention of assylum seekers.